The room was trashed.
Check that, the entire house was trashed. It would've looked better if it had been on fire when the group arrived. Dino and Hoshi looked at each other with a scared look mirroring in their eyes, while Mark and Jaebum bravely got out and hurried to go see what they could salvage.
Jackson and Jinyoung were left in the Tuan mansion for two main reasons:
1) Taking them off the grounds was insanely dangerous.
2) Jackson actually had yet to wake up and Jinyoung was not in a state where his mental health would be improved if he was torn away from Jackson.
About an hour after Jinyoung had gone upstairs and fallen asleep next to Jackson, Mark got an SOS test from Yugyeom that quite literally had only the letters S-O-S typed in before it was sent.
Yugyeom and Bambam's house had been broken into and everything had been trashed. Of course, Jaebum had called ahead and made sure that the two were in a safe place while their house was being overturned and no one had answered.
However, oddly, they had texted back with a Yes, we are safe. Then they wouldn't respond.
"Check upstairs," Jaebum said, calmly stepping through the broken threshold that once held a door. Mark followed his orders and went upstairs, Jaebum looking out the shattered front window at the car to see Hoshi calling the police to report it.
He nodded at them.
That's good. If they get the police involved, Mr. Wang's confidence will definitely falter and since this was part of something he had planned, he would not be all that eager to try again.
Besides, the police would be able to help them.
He glanced around the living room, seeing that it was absolutely trashed. Things had been covered with a black paint, splattered on the white carpet and the tan walls, dumped on the couch, coating everything that Bambam and Yugyeom had worked so hard to buy and support with a metallic color.
Making a mental note to help pay everything off, he continued to the kitchen.
Mark returned from upstairs and said, "The only thing up there is more black paint and the distinct smell of burning rubber."
Jaebum raised his eyebrow, expecting Mark to explain or elaborate a little more.
"It was a cut-up burning tire that was in a bin in Yugyeom's room," Mark spoke, pinching the bridge of his nose, "It's a long story, I'll explain it later."
Jaebum nodded and they moved to the game room, which was in the middle of being converted to a bedroom for Jackson to stay in. That was when they found something rather interesting.
Through the midst of the distant screaming sirens and the haze of the afternoon sun, through the black paint on the wall, they could see another layer that raised the blob up silently.
You wouldn't understand.
Under that was a phone, Yugyeom's phone to be exact, and it was untouched except for a sticky note that was pasted onto the back. Jaebum approached the small black box and picked up it, turning the Samsung over in his hands and sighing out a rather resigned sigh.
He pocketed the phone and the sticky note and said, "Let's look for Yugyeom and Bambam."
The moment he finished speaking, a bang came from the hallway and both boys went for the first object they saw that could be used as a weapon. Jaebum grabbed a baseball bat. Mark grabbed a stuffed animal.
Jaebum looked over at him with a raised eyebrow, mouthing, "Really?"
Mark shrugged and another bang demanded their attention, Jaebum leading the way into the hallway and heading towards a door on the left at the end. It was the one thing that had been left untouched by the black paint.
The silence was deafening and Mark raised the stuffed animal above his head as Jaebum reached forwards and knocked on the door with the end of the baseball bat.
"Hyung?!"
"Yugyeom?!"
"Oh gosh, hyung! The door is locked, the key should be around there somewhere!"
Mark and Jaebum were quick to abandon their "weapons" to the side and quickly looked around for the key. The eldest was already frustrated when his hands were touching still-wet black paint but when neither he nor the leader could find the key, he reached his limit.
He picked up the baseball bat and with three swift hits, the handle was on the ground and Yugyeom and Bambam burst from the closet door happily, quickly hugging both of them gratefully.
They had a happy reunion for the moment until both Bambam and Yugyeom's features turned solemn.
"It was--"
"Youngjae," Jaebum finished for Bambam, pulling out the sticky note and unfolding it, revealing Youngjae's signature scribbled onto it with a pen.
Mark screwed his eyebrows together, asking, "Why would Youngjae do it? He's obviously got the least to manipulate out of all of us."
Jaebum sighed and replied, "Well, Youngjae was right. We don't understand."
He looked resentful and reproachful at the same time, distress scribbling behind his eyes. Maybe when he said "we don't understand" he implied something else.
He could've implied they don't know what Youngjae could have to lose by this manipulation, but he did and he simply didn't want to prove himself right.
After all...it's Youngjae.
I feel so much better, I'm sorry for the bad chapter before. --Shade
